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1.2.4-Kingedmundsroyalmurder
Brick!club day 16: of POV switches, menial labor, and more hospitality A point of business first: I’m out of town this weekend and may not have access to internet. I don’t know for sure if the hotel I’ll be at has wi-fi or if I’ll be allowed to use it, since the rooms are being paid for by the school and I doubt they’ll reimburse us for wi-fi. If I am out of contact until Sunday night I’ll catch up when I get back, otherwise it should be business as usual. (I’m also gone next weekend, but I know for a fact that I’ll have no wi-fi then.) Moving on, we get the actual chapter. Which is another of Baptistine’s letters to her friend the Viscountess, one which recounts in exacting detail the conversation between her brother and Jean Valjean. I’m going to suspend both my disbelief and my normal distaste for letters or diaries that seem to require perfect recall to write and just focus on the content. Jean Valjean starts by making a rather tactless observation about the quality of the Bishop’s food. I love that Baptistine is secretly kind of shocked by this, since it’s not the kind of thing you bring up in polite society. But it’s a very childlike thing to do, and Valjean has demonstrated an extremely childlike manner thus far. I’m not using that to say he’s behaved badly or anything, just that he seems to approach things with this innocent sense of wonder and amazement (and doesn’t appear to know the meaning of tact). I wonder if he’s being painted this way to make way for his transformation coming up, either in foreshadowing for the moment of rebirth or as a thematic connection to the idea of beginning anew. Because frankly, Jean Valjean is astoundingly lacking in bitterness. Sure, he shook his fist at the church earlier, but that was frustration more than anything and he’s just heartbreakingly earnest here. I would compare him to Jesus, due to the being reborn thing, but we’ve already established that the Bishop is basically the Jesus of this bit, so presumably Valjean is playing the role of disciple. (Paul, maybe? He used to be a terrible sinner and was then fairly abruptly and completely converted and changed his name? I shouldn’t be talking about this I don’t know anything about religion. Someone with more knowledge stop me from embarrassing myself.) Anyway, the Bishop continues to neglect to inform Valjean of his actual status and Valjean continues to have some serious respect for priests. I’m not entirely sure if Valjean’s “you should be a priest” is a reference to the Bishop’s goodness of character or just an observation that if he were a priest he would make more money. Either way it does imply some measure of regard for the church, since he willingly associates it with this man he appears to partially idolize at this point. So then the Bishop talks about the various jobs available near Pontarlier and, like tumblr user Columbina, I want more backstory. I’ve been vocal since the beginning about wanting to know how the Bishop became the Bishop, and I suspect this is part of it. He’s suddenly stripped of most of his privilege and forced to deal with the people first hand. Though is this before or after he comes back from Italy? We’re told that he went to Italy to escape the revolution and that when he came back he was a priest, so is he doing menial labor while also a priest? Is that a thing that happens? Or has Hugo just failed slightly at internal consistency? Anyway, yes, I think working next to the poor probably helped shape his worldview a lot, especially if he was getting paid as much as they were (i.e. not much). I do have to wonder why Baptistine was surprised that the Bishop didn’t ask Valjean for his history. We’ve already established that that’s one of his core rules of hospitality. (Chapter six: “«Ne demandez pas son nom à qui vous demande un gîte. C’est surtout celui-là que son nom embarrasse qui a besoin d’asile.” (Do not ask the name of he who asks you for shelter. It is especially he who is embarrassed by his name who needs asylum.)) I can’t remember if it was in an earlier chapter or in the Baptistine thread that someone talked about how the Bishop is better about dealing with people suffering than people causing the suffering and I think this is a good example of that. He’s very careful with Valjean and does his best not to poke at his tender spots but when faced with the Senator or G or his fellow clergymen he goes right for the bull’s eye without too much consideration for their sensibilities. Admittedly they’re not asking for his help, whereas Valjean is completely at his mercy, so there’s a power difference going on, but still. Like basically everyone else I want more about mother Gerbaud. She’s described at one point as “the poor old Gerbaud” and doesn’t seem particularly surprised by her presence, so presumably she’s one of those who requires frequent assistance. I’m assuming that the deerskin is not the only blanket Baptistine has. I have no basis on which to make this assumption, but it makes me sad to think of her cold so I am assuming that this is the case. Commentary Pilferingapples The feeling I get from Valjean here is that he’s basically lost all his in-between social settings. He can grovel, he can assault, he can spill if he feels safe- but it’s either all caution, all rage, or all openness. He’s been almost utterly desocialized. It’s painfully believable. Perhaps Baptistine and Magloire share a bed in cold weather? Nothing physical implied, it’s just a pretty easy way to boost warmth when the sheets are thin; if the weather’s cool instead of just cold, it can be enough to make an evening comfortable. And I will be genuinely sad if you are stolen from us by wi-fi access; you’re a shining light in this club, for sure! But go indulge non-Tumblife as you must, we shall eagerly await your return! Kingedmundsroyalmurder (reply to Pilferingapples) Oooh, yes, that makes sense. We’re back to the no moderation thing that got touched on in one of the Baptistine threads, which is cool. (Is this going to be a running theme? I know we have Javert, who does not particularly believe in moderation and a couple character (R, Eponine) whose love for other people is extreme enough to have crossed the line into destructive. Is there a point to it, or is it just coincidence?) And yes, I want cuddling between them, especially when it’s cold. (I know cuddling and sleeping in the same bed aren’t the same, but still. I want it.) Aww, thank you~ I will also be genuinely sad if I am stolen away from you. How are we going to cope if I make it into field school in June and spend a solid five weeks without internet?